CAIRO: The government holds the biggest share of responsibility for the unsolved dilemma of unemployment that Egypt has been suffering for many years, said Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, a PA member affiliated with the National Democratic Party (NDP) to The Daily Star Egypt.
Kwaitah was commenting on a memo filed to the PA by eight members affiliated with opposition parties accusing the government of failing to confront the high unemployment rate among youngsters in Egypt.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif attended the questioning session at the PA and admitted there was a problem and that there had been a decrease in employment opportunities. He replied that the government chose the hard and long way in solving the issue, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.
Nazif indicated that it would have been easier if the government hired unemployed youngsters in governmental institutions to solve the issue. However the government, which also needs to increase its investments and enhance its economic status, chose to work on increasing the investment opportunities in both the public and private sectors.
This course of action would eventually lead to more employment opportunities, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.
Mohamed Aboul Enein, NDP representative at the PA, told The Daily Star Egypt that the government is concerned with another phase of development at this time.
The government is allowing more investment opportunities in the field of industry and is helping the private sector purchase more land setting up new industrial zones, he said.
Aboul Enein added that the government has limited capabilities and budget and so cannot handle everything at the same time.
On the other hand, Kwaitah said that “lately the government has depended more on the private sector to lead its economic development by providing it with around 71 percent of its economic reform budget.
But the private sector is unable to employ more people, so the government should not burden it with such a responsibility, Kwaitah added.
The government is obliged to come up with new and untraditional ideas to solve the problem, he believes.
Sobhy Saleh, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated PA member, told The Daily Star Egypt that nothing will happen as a result of the PA investigation because the NDP is supporting its government s denial of any responsibility or mistakes that led to the lack of employment.
If the patient does not admit that he is ill, then how can anyone help him? Saleh added.
There are two main causes to the problem, according to Saleh: the deterioration of the educational system, which neither provides qualified curricula nor satisfies the needs of the labor market; and the spread of administrative corruption in the educational system.
The government is even to blame for Egyptian’s negative cultural attitude to work, said Saleh, as Egyptians are known as being lazy and unproductive laborers.
Our cultural inheritance regarding work was shaped by the government s guidance, he added.
The PA interpellation argued that the increase in unemployment has led to the recent increase in espionage cases.
But Aboul Enein disagreed, saying that nothing should ever drive a person to spy on his government or nation.
Even if a person cannot afford to eat, this does not give him the excuse to spy on his country, he said.
